Logan Lerman: I heard about the book growing up, and I had friends that really loved it. I knew that it was really important to them, but I never read it until I heard that the film was coming out. I read the script and I loved it, and then I read the book and I loved it and then I fell in love with Charlie.

ON PLAYING CHARLIE:

The character was really interesting for me. His arc was really interesting. It was really challenging. Scary because there was so much there. There are places that you don’t really want to go, that feel uncomfortable, but it felt like an interesting challenge. There’s so much there for an actor to work on. There’s a lot of meat on the bone for that character. Everybody goes through that in high school, that same universal [experience of] finding yourself and figuring out how to accept yourself for who you are. In terms in getting into the character it was almost like going back into that feeling of isolation. So I tried to isolate myself as much as possible and it made me extremely awkward in front of people.

ON WORKING WITH EMMA WATSON:

She’s extremely talented and really lovely as well. Very smart and humble. It’s ridiculous—she was the only person having to work on their accent and their character at the same time. She had to double up on that and she knocked it out of the park.

ON THE FILM’S UNIVERSAL MESSAGE:

The overall theme is about finding yourself and figuring out who are, and being comfortable in your own skin, and that everybody should be able to find a way to get to that place. To be honest, I feel that adults could take away the same message really. It’s not anything specifically or different for them. I think acceptance is the main message that anyone could take away from the movie.